While growing up, I was surrounded by unfinished projects. Every Saturday morning, my family would always start with a simple task such as building a treehouse or deep cleaning the garage. However, after lunch, we would ease into an afternoon lethargy and forget our original goal, moving on to easier everyday tasks such as washing the clothes or cooking. The next day, we would altogether forget about this brand new project and learn to operate around the half-finished remains of the previous day’s work. This horrible cycle taught me that it is very easy to start something, but extremely difficult to finish it. You can have the motivation to start something as it seems new and fresh; it feels like you are taking initiative and are starting to lay the path to a new and improved life. However, it is very hard to follow through with your goals, because as time goes on, you lose your motivation and excitement and quickly relate your goal to an unwanted chore.
This habit of my family, along with many other factors that are too plentiful to list, was one of the many bad habits I disliked about growing up. Everyday I would tell myself that I will not be like my family, that when I grow up and leave my home, I will be able to fix everything that I deemed was wrong. However, after 2 years in college, I can firmly say that bad habits die hard. I’ve proven to myself that it is so difficult to move past a habit that has been so intertwined with my lifestyle for the past 18 years. No matter how many times I’ve tried to workout or practice piano at Tech, it always seemed to end in failure. Yet, I always told myself that the next time would be different, that now that I’m not at home, I can break this bad habit. Even in the beginning of quarantine, I assured myself that once I go back to Georgia Tech, I will finally succeed in breaking this.
Then, I found out I wouldn’t be returning to Tech for a while. My original plan of fixing up these bad habits in college flew out the window. I couldn’t seriously push this off for months. I realized that even though I am not in the optimal environment (i.e. I’m stuck at home), I need to stop procrastinating and start fixing up things. Therefore, I decided to start at my own home. I revisited some old projects from when I was a child and started to tackle one by one over each weekend. I organized my closet and finally got rid of all my unused clothes (I donated, of course). I, then, cleaned up my brother’s closet that was filled with office supplies (his room used to be the office) and moved all of them into my own closet. I deep cleaned the living room, discarding all the wires, CDs, DVDs, and recording tapes that were not used or contained useless entertainment. I cleaned out a closet filled with random cleaning items and tools that hasn’t been cleaned in the 17 years we’ve lived in our house. Finally, I even got around to painting my room, which was something I’ve always wanted to do as a kid.
As I completed each project, my parents would constantly tell me to take a break or finish the task next week. But, no matter what, I would always start and finish it during the weekend. I really wish I could say that I was able to grow the motivation and change my lifestyle overnight, but that’s simply not true. Instead, I had my brother who would help me with each project and hold me accountable for what I say I will do. I realized that by having someone like my brother, it allowed me to constantly bring fire to my motivation and actuallay follow through with each task. In the past, everytime I tried to complete a personal goal by myself, I would inevitably fail. But, I now understand that I don’t need to complete projects or fix bad habits by myself. If I can find someone to hold me accountable and to do it with me, I can easily finish what I set my mind to, even if it’s breaking a bad habit that has stuck with me all of my life.
